


Meeting Smile After Smile

by katayla



Category: Secret Society Girl - Diana Peterfreund
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-13
Updated: 2010-12-13
Packaged: 2017-10-13 16:11:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/139177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/pseuds/katayla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie and Amy attend the Rose & Grave Christmas party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting Smile After Smile

"Are you ready?" Jamie called from the other room.

I stared at myself in the dingy bathroom mirror. I wasn't fond of thinking of myself as a vain person. I know my worth went beyond that, yet . . . shouldn't I look more impressive? More knowledgable? I sighed.

The Rose & Grave Christmas party would be my first real appearance as a patriarch and I still looked like an undergrad.

Jamie appeared in the doorframe. "What's wrong?" he said. "You look great."

He said it absentmindedly and maybe that should have bothered me, but, instead, it thrilled me. It _meant_ something, to have gotten so far into our relationship that such phrases were commonplace. Gotten to where I didn't need to analyze every word Jamie said or make a list of what he might be thinking.

And if Jamie and I could survive each other, what was a mere party?

"Okay," I said, and smiled at him. "Let's go."

The party had just gotten started when we arrived. Men in suits mingled while the Diggers, the _current_ Diggerslooked on. Maybe Jamie and I were impressive after all. He, a rising law student, and me, jet-setting New Yorker of hot new company Caritas.

"Do you miss it?" Jamie asked.

I looked around the room. Did I miss being an active knight?

1) Yes. Some of my times in collegehell, in lifewere in Rose & Grave. I wouldn't have some of my best friends, my _job_ without it.  
2) No. Let the active knights have the trouble. Deal with the rumors, the controversy, the headache.

"Not all of it," I settled for saying.

Jamie laughed. "Can I guess which parts you don't miss?"

But I didn't answer and he soon left to talk to a patriarch who was spearheading a senator's reelection campaign. I knew Jamie was aiming for a summer job with him.

I understood him so much better now. His ambition, his goals and his actions last year. Wanting to cling to this place. Clarissa and Jenny and I had taken the train to New Haven together, but when we'd seen each other at the party, we greeted each other as if we hadn't seen each other in months.

Maybe we hadn't. At least, Bugaboo, Angel and Lucky hadn't.

To my surprise, a patriarch cornered me then and began asking questions about Caritas. Fortunately, I could give the talking points in my sleep now. He asked thoughtful questions and, as our conversation came to an end, slipped me his business card and said he thought his company could help ours out.

I stared at the business card in shock. It wasn't the first one I'd been handed, but somehow I hadn't fully considered this aspect of being a patriarch. Maybe the Diggers didn't pull quite as many strings as the world assumed, but we did network. And parties like this were part of that. Maybe I'd missed that as an active knight, caught up in my club'sand my own personaldrama.

I tucked the card into my purse and went off to find Jamie. Maybe this patriarch thing wasn't so bad after all.


End file.
